Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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Handel’s Penultimate Oratorio Theodora: A Performance History

Cozzolino, Alexander ( 2022)

The performance histories of Handel’s oratorios have received little attention from musicologists, yet they provide important cultural and musical insights. Composed in 1749, Theodora is Handel’s penultimate oratorio. From Handel’s death in 1759 to the first commercial recording in 1968, the work was performed on at least fifty separate occasions. This research examines the reception of these performances using predominantly press reports. A focus of the thesis is the trend to stage oratorio that emerged in the 1920s and continues into the twenty-first century. A staging of Theodora in Chicago in 1935, and sets of performances in London in 1952, 1958 and 1966 are used as case studies. In addition, the research also considers early twentieth-century recordings of the aria ‘Angels, ever bright and fair’ which between 1903 and 1932 was recorded on at least twenty-nine occasions. This aria is used as an example to illustrate changes in performance practice and taste over an extended period. By examining both written and aural sources, the research provides insights into the changes in baroque interpretive practices between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.